'Booksmart'—the new way to make GREAT coming of age comedies

'Booksmart' is not your textbook coming of age comedy.

This fresh, new age, modern take on graduating high schoolers about to go to college destroys all comedic stereotypes, in one night, going FULL SEND (me Monday-Saturday all four years of college).

It’s fantastic.

Anyway…

This film is wonderfully directed by Olivia Wilde and amazingly written by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, Katie Silberman. These five FUNNY as hell women perfectly represent society today and how you don’t have to be “cool” or look “cool” to be considered one of the popular kids. They also do a fantastic job of breaking the stereotype that even if you don’t look or act like a "smart" person that doesn’t mean you are dumb, and can be just as smart as the person who “looks the part".

For this being Olivia Wilde’s first feature film, it is a fantastic start. I cannot wait to see the other movies she makes going forward.

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein kill it! The two stars of the film are on one! Literally.

(Side note: Beanie is the sister of Jonah Hill in real life and they are in some of the best comedies of the last decade. This is the only reference to Jonah I will be making, because I do not want to take away from Beanie and her performance).

I would say the only other movie in the last 10 years that does a good job of showing a similar representation of high schoolers in today’s society is ’21 Jump Street,' but still the characters in that movie are a little cartoony, which is not a bad thing. Great movie.

However, ‘Booksmart’ is still educational and self-aware in the sense that even the most woke people, like Dever and Feldstein, can be responsible for slipping up and assuming people’s sexuality and even just assuming their classmates’ personalities and life, more Feldstein’s character than Dever’s.

This film was so underrated and flew under the radar of many, including during award season, because 2019 was a STACKED year for films and debatably the best year for films since 1999. I loved every minute of this film. I have rewatched it multiple times, still laughing at the same parts, but each time I found something new to laugh at that I managed to miss before. An example is when Dever and Feldstein are in the back of Jared’s car and they spill all the vitamins on themselves. The first time I didn’t laugh too hard at that scene, but every time since then I find myself dying of laughter. That shit is so funny. Every character in here is three dimensional. There is more personality to them than just being THAT asshole or JUST a theater kid. It is nice to see and once again, Wilde and her team of writers do deserve more love than they got.

The innocence and adolescence combo in this movie brings a great balance to it as well, because they blend perfectly well into scenes that are so sexual or raunchy and the innocence is the punchline, to me at least. For example, when Dever and Feldstein are in the back of their principal’s car, because he is also a nighttime Lyft driver, it sends me HOWLING! The two protagonists are watching porn and Feldstein’s character needs to charge her phone, so Sudeikis hands them a charger and says something like “Oh you want to hop on aux?” Then the headass switches it to her phone and that shit is on FULL blast volume. I bust out laughing every time and the innocence is just perfect and Sudeikis’ headass says, “Was that Cardi B?” Like BRUHHH.

The scene where they are high as HELL. That is all I'm saying. G O L D .

Another example of this innocence was when Dever and Feldstein asked the pizza delivery guy to take them to the party. Wilde did a great job of making these two teens very smart, but at the same time very naïve.

...

Now that I think about it they are not street smart, but booksmart.

A HA HA!

Please don’t stop reading.

For the readers that stayed. Let me just say this—this movie is a great watch and the shots in this film are great too. I usually am not a fan of a lot of slowmo shots, but this movie makes each one work and fit. It’s like, “Damn I would never have thought to film that in slowmo, but now that you did, I can’t see it working any other way.”

The ending is cliché, but with a fresh twist. The girl gets the girl and the girl kisses the guy! I love that, make this normal in more movies!!! One of the best comedies of last year and one of the best in the last decade. NO CAP!

Overall, I give ‘Booksmart’ an 86/100. It is hilarious, fresh, new, and hopefully the start of a trend for comedies like this. I cannot wait to see Olivia Wilde direct more films. She has one in the works and the cast is absolutely stacked already!

I hope everyone is staying safe during these very tough times. Share my content with friends, family, people who enjoy creative content.

Blade Runner 2049 review is coming next. I am very excited AND very scared to write it.